July 9, 2023
Happy Disability Pride! Here, Have a Flag!
The Disability Pride Flag represents everyone with a disability, and the design reflects inclusion This piece explains what the flag means, has some links out to the history of the making of the flag, and is available in both audio and text formats
The Potential Power of Humid Places, or Tesla's Dream Cranks Up
As the climate change proceeds there will be more water in the atmosphere, though its distribution is uneven, to say the least. Yet in those places with sufficiently humid air there may be an emerging technology that can help. It uses hygroelectricity, this is the static charge that forms on small airborne droplets of water, which in sufficient quantity might be able to power your house, with the right kind of nanowire device. At least that is what a professor at UMass Amherst and a private company in the seed round of investment both say in an article in the Guardian. They are not alone in seeing potential in this. [more inside]
What is a pademelon?
LEGO Building Instructions
A dump of all available building instruction booklet PDFs from the LEGO website (As of March 2023) [Archive.org]
To the other side of the Sun, to resurrect the last Great Observatory
Launches, satellites, deep space missions, images, and more. Let's check in on humanity's exploration of space for July 2023. [more inside]
Gravity waves. Should we wave back?
Top science explainer Katie Mack (she's eclipsed Neil deGrasse Tyson in ability if not in reach, IMO) covers why gravitational waves make her feel all fluttery inside. (ungated link) [more inside]
Elevator Obscura: Hacks and Curios in the Lift Industry
Okay, this is seriously geeky, but it's geeky in such a great way. Elevators: how do they work? Well, this talk from 2011 tells you everything about how elevators work and ALSO is sort of a grey hat hacker video about how elevators REALLY work. Elevator Obscura: Hacks and Curios in the Lift Industry [1h30m, conference talk video, minor CW for a couple of accident photos, no gore]
as the basilisks demand...
Mork Borg is a rules-light tabletop RPG about low-fantasy skulduggery at the end of the world. In its bones are an excess of doom metal, over-the-top graphic design, and an excess of content, both in-house and fan-made. There's a free bare-bones edition for printing and previewing. Online random generators include DNGNGEN, SCVMBIRTHER, and THE MONSTER APPROACHES. A couple fan-made favorites are Forbidden Psalm ('miniature gaming at the end of the world') and the Mork Borg webcomic To Hell and Galgenbeck.
The Status Quo-alition
In his most recent 'collection' military historian Bret Devereaux describes
the Status Quo Coalition. Summed up in a tweet, he thinks
the current international system is less 'American hegemony' and more a coalition of status quo powers, of which the USA is the 'team captain.'[more inside]
Rare seriously, seriously cute chubby-cheeked rat discovered
Rare seriously, seriously cute chubby-cheeked rat discovered near Melbourne.
Shy broad-toothed rat found after a detection dog tracked down its bright green poo.
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